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Month: May 2013

We went to Czech Republic for two days! Martin’s friends were getting together to play football and drink beer as they like to do, and we were able to make it to the event. Wednesday we took the last flight to Prague, slept at the airport (in an indoor playground), took a train to Pardubice the next morning to have breakfast with Martin’s mom, then took another train to Brno. When we got there the drinking, grilling, and sports were going full speed. We had fun, maybe too much (note to self, avoid the slivovitz and “potato juice” next time). And I have to say, I was happy to realize that my Czech is better than I realized…there is something to the immersion theory. When you can listen to people speaking the language you are trying to learn, you start to pick out the words you know and piece together sentences you didn’t realize you could construct. Don’t get me wrong, they were pretty simple sentences, but at least I could ask people some questions, order beers correctly, and tell Martin’s mom that I liked a small white dog!

Walking to the Luton Airport.
Nap time.
I left that hoodie somewhere
Local heros.
Action shot!
Everyone likes pivo, even this bílý pes!
School friends. They enjoy laughing, animals, and drinking all day.

The next day we met Martin’s mother for lunch in Brno. Thanks to the Czech tradition of drinking whatever is put in front of you, I was a little on the slow side. Eventually I rallied enough to keep down some Coca~Cola, and we went to see an ossuary at St. James’ Church. Now, an ossuary is a place where there are a bunch of skeletons piled on top of each other because some organization in the past decided that was the most practical thing to do with the overflow of dead bodies that had accumulated. I’m not arguing with this reasoning as I don’t have any better suggestions. The (estimated 50,000) human remains were only discovered in 2001, and has been open to the public for less than a year. And it’s in the middle of town…near the restaurant we ate at..down a VERY unassuming staircase…you would never know it was there if you didn’t know it was there.

My crypt keeper.
They say the road to hell is paved with “good intentions,” but I’m guessing it’s construction is a bit more like this.
Cool!

So, a good, but short, trip to Czech. We’re supposed to go back in July for a similar get-together. I’ll be studying harder now that I’ve seen some of the work paying off!